Regular Season Review

[Hall2012]

Preseason Coaches Poll:
1. Villanova
2. Seton Hall
3. Xavier
4. Providence
5. Creighton
6. St. John's
7. Marquette
8. Butler
9. Georgetown
10. DePaul

Holy Land Poll:
1. Villanova
2. Xavier
3. Seton Hall
4. Providence
5. Creighton
6. Butler
7. Marquette
8. St. John's
9. DePaul
10. Georgetown

Final Standings:
1. Xavier
2. Villanova
3. Seton Hall
3. Creighton
3. Providence
6. Butler
6. Marquette
8. Georgetown
9. St. John's
10. DePaul

Some opinions:
Biggest Surprise: Georgetown - The Hoyas were far more competitive this year than most expected them to be. Honorable mention to Xavier for winning the title - they were largely considered to have a chance, but I'm not sure many actually expected them to pull it off.

Biggest Disappointment: 1A - Seton Hall, 1B - St. John's. Both fell well short of expectations in the regular season. SHU was expected to challenge with Villanova and Xavier and get a strong NCAA seed, but ended up falling into the pack while St. John's was expected to be in the middle pack but a brutal start to league play condemned them to the bottom 3. The Johnnies flashed their potential with arguably the most impressive pair of wins out of anyone in the league. SHU knows it'll have a chance to redeem itself in the NCAA's. St. John's can too, but needs to start it's redemption work at The Garden.

[stever20]

Seton Hall's struggles though really helped the Big East get maybe 7 teams in with them getting swept by Marquette. St John's also helped getting swept by Providence.

[NJRedman]

Preseason Coaches Poll:
1. Villanova
2. Seton Hall
3. Xavier
4. Providence
5. Creighton
6. St. John's
7. Marquette
8. Butler
9. Georgetown
10. DePaul

Holy Land Poll:
1. Villanova
2. Xavier
3. Seton Hall
4. Providence
5. Creighton
6. Butler
7. Marquette
8. St. John's
9. DePaul
10. Georgetown

Final Standings:
1. Xavier
2. Villanova
3. Seton Hall
3. Creighton
3. Providence
6. Butler
6. Marquette
8. Georgetown
9. St. John's
10. DePaul

Some opinions:
Biggest Surprise: Georgetown - The Hoyas were far more competitive this year than most expected them to be. Honorable mention to Xavier for winning the title - they were largely considered to have a chance, but I'm not sure many actually expected them to pull it off.

Biggest Disappointment: 1A - Seton Hall, 1B - St. John's. Both fell well short of expectations in the regular season. SHU was expected to challenge with Villanova and Xavier and get a strong NCAA seed, but ended up falling into the pack while St. John's was expected to be in the middle pack but a brutal start to league play condemned them to the bottom 3. The Johnnies flashed their potential with arguably the most impressive pair of wins out of anyone in the league. SHU knows it'll have a chance to redeem itself in the NCAA's. St. John's can too, but needs to start it's redemption work at The Garden.

If we all knew SJU would be without Lovett all season no one would have picked them 6th. Even without him they still almost ended up where the board thought they would be.

[ecasadoSBU]

Biggest Disappointment: 1A - Seton Hall, 1B - St. John's. Both fell well short of expectations in the regular season. SHU was expected to challenge with Villanova and Xavier and get a strong NCAA seed, but ended up falling into the pack while St. John's was expected to be in the middle pack but a brutal start to league play condemned them to the bottom 3. The Johnnies flashed their potential with arguably the most impressive pair of wins out of anyone in the league. SHU knows it'll have a chance to redeem itself in the NCAA's. St. John's can too, but needs to start it's redemption work at The Garden.

To be honest: Seton Hall disappointment could be summed up with a single loss - @Rutgers (RPI: 200) That loss alone probably dropped SHU's RPI from 5th seed territory to 7th Seed territory. Besides that @Rutgers loss I would say that losing @Georgetown (RPI 151) in such a tight game hurt them big time also. They would've otherwise been 23-8 which is somewhat what everyone expected. None of the other losses were bad losses or hurtful... Upsets happen. SHU is a good team in a freaking tough league... and let's be honest to each other - No one expected SHU to be #1 or #2

Hopefully they can get past the hump and win a couple of games in the NCAAT. Delgado is a BEAST!!

[ecasadoSBU]

SJU in my opinion did okay considering the circumstances. they were expected to be middle of the pack at best. Without LoVett that was almost impossible. They underachieved just a bit... but may have had the biggest win of the year (at least for the media) by beating up on Duke

[stever20]

Biggest Disappointment: 1A - Seton Hall, 1B - St. John's. Both fell well short of expectations in the regular season. SHU was expected to challenge with Villanova and Xavier and get a strong NCAA seed, but ended up falling into the pack while St. John's was expected to be in the middle pack but a brutal start to league play condemned them to the bottom 3. The Johnnies flashed their potential with arguably the most impressive pair of wins out of anyone in the league. SHU knows it'll have a chance to redeem itself in the NCAA's. St. John's can too, but needs to start it's redemption work at The Garden.

To be honest: Seton Hall disappointment could be summed up with a single loss - @Rutgers (RPI: 200) That loss alone probably dropped SHU's RPI from 5th seed territory to 7th Seed territory. Besides that @Rutgers loss I would say that losing @Georgetown (RPI 151) in such a tight game hurt them big time also. They would've otherwise been 23-8 which is somewhat what everyone expected. None of the other losses were bad losses or hurtful... Upsets happen. SHU is a good team in a freaking tough league... and let's be honest to each other - No one expected SHU to be #1 or #2

Hopefully they can get past the hump and win a couple of games in the NCAAT. Delgado is a BEAST!!

Seton Hall losing the home game to Marquette hurt the RPI by more given that it was a home game. RPI with a win vs Marquette at home 18, with a win @ Rutgers 19.

I don't think folks expected Seton Hall to go only 10-8 this year.

[anXUfan]

Mullen and Ewing are both exceeding my expectations.

[Jet915]

Mullen and Ewing are both exceeding my expectations.

I agree about Ewing, Mullin I'm not so sure about unless your expectations were zero.

[NJRedman]

Mullen and Ewing are both exceeding my expectations.

I agree about Ewing, Mullin I'm not so sure about unless your expectations were zero.

Shitty circumstances clearly derailed a talented team this season. Depth will be there next year for the first time in his tenure he'll have a full roster of talent.

[XUFan09]

Preseason Coaches Poll:
If we all knew SJU would be without Lovett all season no one would have picked them 6th. Even without him they still almost ended up where the board thought they would be.

If you're going to lose a player in the first quarter of the season, frankly it would be better if you never had him at all. Then there's no need to adjust mid-season; instead a team can prepare for the players they know they have from the get-go in the preseason. It took some time to figure out roles once Lovett was gone, but since then, Shamorie Ponds has put this team on his back and other players like Justin Simon have come into their own. Hell, maybe Mussini would still be on the team.

I'm proceeding under the assumption that Lovett will not be back next season. If he is back (which would be awesome), then the mid-season turmoil and the loss of Mussini to transfer would be well worth it for what this team could do next season. Still, I'm sure it's frustrating to watch a team understandably struggle with the loss of a star.